Junior Project Manager Review

I work for the East Midlands Ambulance Service within the Strategy and Transformation Directorate in the Programme Team. I have recently been seconded into a Junior Project Manager role whilst completing my Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship with the Open University. I am currently supporting with a Primary Care Network Programme and supporting to procurements. My day-to-day tasks include reporting progress to steering groups and board meetings, liaising with colleagues, managing risk logs, mobilisation plans, providing up to date highlight reports, etc.

I have learnt a lot of new skills and feel that i have developed throughout the past year of my apprenticeship. For example, i have done a lot of work on organisational culture, negotiation, conflict, leadership, etc. Putting my work into practice to evidence within my assignments has really helped me to reflect on my current ways of working and how to better myself in the workplace.

I am absolutely loving my programme and appreciate the support from my organisation in giving me this opportunity and allowing me to take time out to develop myself. As a Project Manager, up to yet i am finding it easy to cover all grounds of the subjects i am learning and feel it is providing me with further knowledge to support me in improving my work in practice.

It is very well organised. Especially throughout covid when we have all been at home, due to open university being mostly online it has been very good to carry working online as usual from my own home. I also love the online monthly support tutorials that are scheduled in the diary.

I receive a lot of support from my employer / line manager. I have weekly 1:1's and also protected time each week to complete my 20% off the job study time. My line manager is also very accommodating and flexible when i have assignment deadlines, allowing me to swap my study day to best suit.

I have contact details if i need to contact my open university tutor and also have monthly tutorials to discuss the assignment in hand for that specific month. We also have a forum on the OU website in case we need to ask questions or have any concerns. Every few months i also have a review with my tutor to ensure i am getting on okay and am on track.

As my Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship involves study based but also work based work and assignments, it means i have to put my studying in to practice and then reflect on this within my assignments. This has really helped me to improve by understanding, reflecting and changing the way i work when i think is required to better myself.

I am sure we do have extra curricular activities which i can get involved in. For example, i previously did a dementia awareness walk with my colleagues / team to raise money for the charity. However, at the moment due to covid i think it is difficult to arrange anything due to all currently working from home.

Yes

I think that they stick to their values and have a strong vision. People really are at the heart of everything we do and I feel proud to work for East Midlands Ambulance Service. I think that they are very supportive at progressing and educating their staff, providing them with training opportunities to excel in their roles.

I think my advice would completely depend on the job they were applying for, as we have a very wide variety of roles, from clinical to enabling services. I would suggest that they be respectful, honest and express the importance of teamwork and collaboration. I also think that acting with integrity is very important by doing the right thing for the right reasons and reflecting this when applying.